Wise Fool Strategy # 8Build on an Odd Idea
“If this unusual thing is true, what else is true?”
— Upright Citizens Brigade, American Improv Group
The opening quote is the motto of the Upright Citizens Brigade, a popular improv group founded in 1990 by comedienne Amy Poehler, among others. It highlights the importance of having a positive, constructive attitude when dealing with unusual and anomalous ideas. Implicit throughout improv performers' engagement with one another is an outlook of:
“Yes, and . . . ”
Such a perspective is vital because improv partners need to build on, rather than reject each other's ideas no matter how strange they are. For example, here are two improv performers working to create a scene:
- Performer #1: “Wow, I had a really busy afternoon at the bridge club.”
- Performer #2: “I can see that — you've got some rivets caught in your pants cuff.”
- Performer #1: [shakes out her pants legs] “Yeah, this bridge is going to span all the way across the Grand Canyon. You'll be able to walk from rim to rim in less than an hour.”
- Performer #2: [begins running in place] “An hour? I gotta start training. I'm going to be the first one to cross it in less than 15 minutes.”
What happened here? Performer #2 played off the ambiguity the word “bridge” to create a “construction worker” situation. If Performer #1 had responded by saying: “No, that's not right, I was talking ...
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